Maharaja: The Spectacular Heritage of Princely India - Hardcover

Andrew Robinson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500541361 ISBN 13: 9780500541364

Publisher: Tne Vendome Press, 1988

Synopsis

In the annals of world history there are few more striking tales than those of Princely India. The Maharajas became bywords for excess, for lifetimes spent in extravagant expenditure and splendour on an almost unparalleled scale. The Princes, their palaces and feudal loyalties live on, and the full gorgeous spectacle of their life-style is captured for perhaps the last time in the pages of this book. This is very much a visual story, full of dazzling a story of throne rooms with gilded and painted ceilings, crystal fountains and peacocks in terraced gardens, gold and silver treasures, of weddings, celebrations and festivals, and of the Maharajas themselves and their families, in public and in private.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Uchiyama, known for his pictures of Japanese movie stars, approaches his subject here in the same slavish manner to document, in full color, the riches of Indian maharajas, from the thrones they sit on to the Rollses they ride in. Though well reproduced, his photographs are resoundingly trite. Since Uchiyama offers no opinion on princely pomp, pomp looks exactly as it always does: diamond nose rings dangle from aristocratic nostrils, elephants preside over nocturnal ceremonies, and gold leaf-encrusted palaces loom timelessly. Only occasionally does the photographer find a telling image, as in the shots of turbanned patriarchs gloating over their splendid automobiles. Robinson's ( The Coasts of India ) text, too, covers familiar groundsurveying royal ceremonies, jewels, princely recreation and palaceswithout telling a full story.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tne Vendome Press
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0500541361
• ISBN 13: 9780500541364
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160